


Sparks in the Sky

by theashemarie



Series: Oneshot Canyon [4]
Category: Splatoon
Genre: F/F, Lesbians, Romantic Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, collab with katiemonz!, fluff fluff fluff, go check out frost bytes i'm serious it's very heckin gay, pov pearl, power blackout, there's a ring involved that's all i'm saying, there's no cursing in this one wow i did it team, written for Frost Bytes zine!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:34:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22352665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theashemarie/pseuds/theashemarie
Summary: "Outside, snow falls like silent starlight. Pearl watches it from her spot in the kitchen, shivering in her thin leggings and t-shirt. Soon, she’ll have to shrug into a hoodie and socks, but for now she’s enjoying the cold, enjoying watching the flecks of snow as they land against the window and melt. The city beyond is dark..."A blackout has hit Inkopolis, Pearl and Marina are stuck inside, and it's just going to get colder.(Alt summary: lesbians [applause] )[Written for Frost Bytes, collab with Katiemonz!]
Relationships: Marina/Pearl (Splatoon)
Series: Oneshot Canyon [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1560196
Comments: 5
Kudos: 58





	Sparks in the Sky

**Author's Note:**

> Please go check out [Frost Bytes](https://twitter.com/FrostBytesZine)! It's a zine with tons of beautiful art and writing and it's gorgeous! The mods worked extremely hard, and all of the contributors knocked it out of the park. I'm extremely honored to be included and I adored watching all of the pieces as they developed!
> 
> This is a collab piece, and the art that [Katiemonz](https://katiemonz.tumblr.com/) did provides the ending! I've included the art at the end of the piece, but please go check out Katie's other stuff! 
> 
> To Katie, my beautiful gf and collaborator: It's always a joy to work with you, and I really think this is one of our best collabs so far! Thank you for humoring me and always jumping into these things with me! <3 I love you so much and I can't wait to work with you again in the future.

Outside, snow falls like silent starlight. Pearl watches it from her spot in the kitchen, shivering in her thin leggings and t-shirt. Soon, she’ll have to shrug into a hoodie and socks, but for now she’s enjoying the cold, enjoying watching the flecks of snow as they land against the window and melt. The city beyond is dark, quiet in the pitch of the blackout, and white, the only electric light from cars as they glide along the roads slowly.

The blackout wasn’t expected but also isn’t a surprise. The Great Zapfish doesn’t like blizzards and the snowfall and ice are so dramatic that they drag the electrical lines down, so there’s always at least one every winter. The blackouts aren’t usually this close to the holidays though, but Pearl’s been living in this city her whole life so nothing surprises her anymore.

“How long do you think it’ll last?” Marina is bundled up on the couch, covered in blankets and dressed in her thickest flannel pajamas. She and the cold don’t get along because she’s used to the perpetual tropics of the domes in Octo Valley—something that Pearl can’t fathom, being a child of the surface and its seasons—so this time of year she’s usually nothing more than a ball of fleece, flannel, sweaters, fake fur, hoodies, boots, scarves, and her beloved fuzzy socks. Pearl can see a pair of them now, red and green, poking out from the bottom of her favorite blanket.

“Probably all night. The roads ain’t safe so they can’t get crews out to fix it.” Pearl glances back to see Marina worrying her bottom lip with her teeth, staring down at her lap. “Hey, it’ll be okay. We have the ceramic heater.”

They do—one of the perks of living in their so-old-it-might-as-well-be-vintage apartment. Almost all the other buildings in downtown use solely electric heating because it’s more efficient, but this building is the oldest one that Pearl’s family owns, the one that probably should be at the top of the renovation shortlist—and it has undergone _some_ reno: they have electric heating in the floors of the bathrooms and their bedroom and wall-mounted air conditioners—but living here is a compromise. The truth is that Pearl wanted to be in one of those newer buildings, with all the metal and glass, the hard tile floors, the central heating and cooling, but Marina wanted vintage; Marina wanted warmth; Marina wanted a place that wasn’t blindingly white. Marina is someone who, after years spent in a world of metal and militaristic order, wanted natural materials and the raw, methodical chaos of brick.

Marina loves wood floors that are so old they feel soft. And Pearl loves Marina. So, they live here, on the top floor of one of the oldest buildings in downtown with wood floors and exposed brick and a balcony with wrought iron railings. There are drafts and the faucets used to leak, but it’s packed to the gills with personality and love. Downtown is Pearl’s half of the compromise: she wanted to be here, in the middle of everything, close to the studio and the square and Starfish Mainstage and The Reef, and Marina, despite favoring the quiet of the suburbs, loves Pearl, so they’ve found their small, warm home here.

And they have their ceramic heater, connected to the gas, and their gas stove and their gas water heater, so things could be worse. Way worse. Which reminds her...

“Reena... Listen, I won’t lie. Power’s out, snow’s coming down. It’s gonna get cold. You know what _that_ means,” Pearl says, one eyebrow rising like a question mark.

Marina looks up at her, thoughtful, and then grins. She throws off her blanket and springs to her feet. “I’ll get the marshmallows!”

+++

They make s’mores on the stove after igniting the gas with a lighter, hold metal skewers out over the small flame, and toast their marshmallows as well as they can. Eventually, Pearl gets too cold to hide it and her teeth begin to chatter, which makes Marina point her toward their room with a stern glance. Pearl grumbles away, and she begrudgingly pulls on her biggest, pinkest hoodie, a bobble hat, and a pair of Marina’s socks. They’re too big so they crawl up her legs to her knees.

Carefully, she moves the velvet bag from the waistband of her leggings to the large front pocket of her hoodie, feeling to make sure the ring is still there. It’ll be much more secure there.

When Pearl returns, Marina is waist deep in a bottom cupboard, searching for candles. “Enough flashlights,” she says when Pearl comes up behind her and puts a hand on her back. The s’mores are sitting on a plate, chocolate oozing. “We need some warm light.”

They pick out giant three-wick candles—cranberry and fleece scented—and light them. Marina’s face, cast in a golden light, looks beautiful as she sets the candles down around their small, sweet feast. Behind them, the Squidmas tree, merry in its dressing, tinsel, and ornaments, sits dark, with a multitude of colorful presents—half wrapped by Marina’s careful, precise hands and the other half stuffed into bags messily by Pearl—lying underneath, expectantly, with all the patience of freshly fallen snow.

Of course, the most important present, the one Pearl’s been hiding since the Final Fest, is deep within the pocket of her hoodie. The only way to keep the small gold circlet hidden was to keep it on her person at all times, even when she slept and showered. She doesn’t have the traditional box because that would give her away, and instead she keeps the ring tucked away in a small, velvet drawstring bag.

Five months of hiding, of waiting, of panicking and Pearl is almost at the finish line. Squidmas morning, when it’s just the two of them, the presents, and mugs of sugary hot cocoa, she’s going to do it. She’s going to take that knee and pop that question.

Or so she tells herself.

“Pearlie,” Marina says, drawing Pearl out of her intense second-guessing. “They’re gonna get cold!”

Pearl grins at her, trying to look convincing and not like she’s beating herself up for taking so long. _Five months_ —

She bites into her s’more, crunching the graham cracker in half with her teeth. Chocolate oozes out and she has to dart and lean over the counter to keep it from dripping on her shirt. Marina laughs at her.

Once they’re done eating, Marina pads toward the window, worrying her lip again. The snow is still coming down in small, individual crystals that paint the sky in great flurries of white. Luckily, the moon is bright tonight, so they can see the city clearly, and the stars are vivid—

_Wait._

“Pearl...” Marina says, realizing at the same time. “The _stars_...”

With all the light pollution gone, the stars are singing clearly from between the clouds. Marina’s hands come up to cover her mouth, and Pearl stares at her, at those long, precise fingers, and she feels something shift inside her, sending up a small blizzard of confusion in her stomach. This is...

“Reena...” Pearl says, suddenly alive with a fever that warms her through. She feels her face heat up as a plan forms. “We have to stay here in the living room tonight... The ceramic heater will keep us warm. I have— I have an idea! Don’t move!”

“Wh— Pearlie... _What_?”

Pearl darts across the room, slipping in her socks, and cranks the knob on the heater up, sees the coils turn color as the gas kicks on and the small flame inside ignites. Then, she spins around, snatches Marina’s favorite blanket off the couch, and scurries to their room, digs around in their closet, and grabs as many blankets as she can carry. She dumps these on the ground right in front of the balcony doors, and makes one more mad dash, this time for the bathroom, where she grabs three large, fluffy towels.

When she returns, Marina is standing near the blanket pile, staring at it pensively, and she sends Pearl a confused, worried look. Pearl waves her off and drops to her knees. The floor is frigid this close to the old, single-paned doors, and she quickly stuffs the towels near the bottom, trying to block the cold from seeping in through the small crack. Then, she gathers up the blankets again and organizes them into a haphazard pile, creating a soft pallet on their old, worn, wood floor.

“C’mon.” Pearl holds her hands out and Marina carefully places her fingers into Pearl’s warm palms. Pearl guides her down, sets her right in the middle of the pile, grabs two more blankets, and drapes them over her. Marina chuckles and pulls them tighter around herself.

“I’ll be right back,” Pearl says, holding her hands out like Marina’s liable to disappear. It’s just that this moment feels suddenly special, feels like she needs to make it count, because it’s never this quiet and dark in the city and it’s the holidays and Pearl actually feels like this all _means_ something, like this little bubble of warmth that they’re creating needs to be enjoyed completely and what better way to do that than in a pile of blankets, staring up at the stars?

Pearl scoops up the candles—dangerously, one in the crook of her elbow—and deposits them carefully around the small nest and crawls close to Marina, who opens up the blankets to let her in.

They stare up, up, up through the wide glass of the balcony doors, at the panorama of the sky, and watch the stars. The candles flicker around them, like small facsimiles for the distant sparks painted on the horizon. Marina raises one arm and points out constellations, using the old human names like Gemini, Orion, Hydra, but Pearl is far too fascinated with the light reflecting in Marina’s eyes.

“I haven’t seen the stars since Mt. Nantai,” Marina says into the quiet, whispering it against the glass as she leans close to see, breath appearing in a small burst of white on its surface. “Since I popped my head out of Octo Valley and climbed out.”

Pearl, taken back for a second, back to when Marina had short hair and Pearl was aching for a best friend, answers a bit belatedly: “We’ve visited Mt. Nantai since then.”

Marina looks back at her, cheeks painted with a light blush. “I wasn’t exactly looking at the stars then. I had more important things to look at.”

The look she gives Pearl is so full of tenderness that it strikes Pearl right in the chest. _“Oh_ ,” she breathes. “S-same.”

Usually, she doesn’t get flustered like this, but something about the blackout, how close they’re sitting, the sight of the stars, the distinct shape of the engagement ring digging into her palm, where she’s clutching it inside her pocket, is making her soft. Her chest feels like it’s gearing up for a timpani solo.

 _This is it_ , she realizes as Marina smiles softly at her and focuses back on the stars. Forget Squidmas morning. This is it, back to where they started—just them, the stars, and nature. Of course, back then, Pearl never imagined that she’d fall in love with _anyone_ , let alone Marina, and it took a few years to get here, but she’s not about to look this cosmic realignment in the face and say no.

“Reena...” she says, pulling her hand free. The velvet bag is there, and she can feel the ring through it. She removes it with shaking fingers. Outside, the snow continues to fall, covering the balcony and the furniture they forgot to pull inside.

Pearl shakes the ring into her palm. “Marina... It’s early, but I have a present for you.”

Marina turns. Pearl holds the ring up, stomach dropping open like a snowflake in freefall.

Marina’s eyes land on the ring. Pearl smiles with as much confidence as she can muster.

Marina’s face lights up like the stars in the night’s sky.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Check me out on Twitter if that's your neck of the woods: [@theashemarie](https://twitter.com/theashemarie)!
> 
> Comments and kudos are cherished! <3


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